Portals tells intertwining true life stories of adopting and being adopted as an older child. Spanning forty years of development the saga is told both from the perspective of Lillian, adopted at age nine, and of her adoptive father, each of them writing alternating chapters. Lillian frankly relates the harrowing abuse and neglect of her early childhood as well as her turbulent post-adoption adolescence including runaways, hospitalization, and leaving home at seventeen. Her psychologist father, William Miller, offers an honest inside perspective on the challenges of parenting a child through these turbulent years. Ultimately it is a redeeming tale of persistent love and post-traumatic growth as the two streams of their lives flow together in adoption and then apart again as Lillian nurtures a family of her own.